Monday, December 12, 2011

Regular Season Game 28: Sometimes I Forget They're Still Just The Thrashers

A trading card company asked Dustin Byfuglien to draw a card for them. This is what he came up with. I can't make this stuff up.

1st Period

Detroit 0 Winnipeg 1; 00:35- Little from Wheeler & Kane

A half minute into the game Winnipeg is trying to start their breakout. Both Franzen and White step towards Wheeler in the neutral zone, and this opens a passing lane to Little. Little is now behind the coverage of Franzen and has most of the ice open in front of him.

Lidstrom skates over from near the sideboards and forces Little to stay out of the middle of the slot.

Lidstrom can't stop the shot and neither can Howard. The Jets have an early lead, and it looks like the Wings are in for a long night. They were overly aggressive in the neutral zone and got burned for it.

Lidstrom starts the play from the top of the faceoff circle in his own zone. That's not a dump in; that's a legitimate pass.

I thought about making a smart ass comment here but I just feel bad. You can tell that the Jets are trying to instruct each other on defensive assignments, but all that chatting causes them to overlook Bertuzzi in the faceoff circle. Franzen pick up the puck and doesn't overlook Bertuzzi

Datsyuk chips the puck behind the net for Franzen. The circled Winnipeg player is Jim Slater. I wish I could say I circled him because he's from Lapeer, but that's really not the case. See that line that leads to the other faceoff circle? That's where he's supposed to be. He's kinda playing out of position. This is going to leave half the ice exposed, and that comes back to bite Winnipeg in the next frame.

Bogosian moves behind the net to cover Franzen, and this conveniently opens up a big shooting lane for a streaking Hudler. The Mule's pass hits at the faceoff dot, and Hudler slaps it in.

Detroit 4 Winnipeg 1; 4:43- Conner (1) from Cleary (5) & Helm (3)

Conner switches sides as Cleary carries through center ice. This momentarily confuses the mess out of the Winnipeg defense.

Conner has all the time he wants due to the gap between himself and the defensemen. Cleary charges the net, and Conner throws one in front hoping for a tip-in from Cleary.

It looks like the puck is redirected off the skate of the Jets player in front of the net. The Wings have all the puck luck tonight, and there's no way Pavelec can stop this.

White moves the puck to Datsyuk, and Pav carries in along the right side boards. The circled Winnipeg player is Byfuglien. He quits on the play right about....there.

Datsyuk is about to pass through the zone through the small lane between defenders. Big Buff? He's just watching Datsyuk and gliding towards the net. Not skating, gliding. He's pushed off his right foot twice since he was at center. If his name ever gets mentioned in the same sentence as Norris Trophy again I'm going to get physically ill.

Well that sucks. It looks like Byfuglien had to do something. In this case, "something" is squish his arms into his torso and stand up straighter to sort of attempt a shot block. This doesn't work, and Filppula roofs it over Pavelec.

Stuart has a huge lane and drives a slapshot from high in the offensive zone.

Pavelec gives up a rebound that ends up directly on the stick of Drew Miller. Miller sweeps at it and scores. Pavelec gets caught trying to move laterally and doesn't have a real chance at stopping this.

Detroit 7 Winnipeg 1; 1:12- Hudler (6) from Zetterberg (13)

Lidstrom tries the crazy long stretch pass from his own zone again, but it misses Zetterberg and goes into the corner. Byfuglien picks it up and turns up ice. He decides to pass into the faceoff circle, which is fine except that Hudler's standing right there and picks it off. So actually it's not fine.

Hudler has Zetterberg in front and makes the mind-numbingly easy pass to him. It looks like Z could slide it under Pavelec five hole...

but instead he's all like "'Tis the season" and passes back to Hudler. Pavelec is now in some type of Cirque du Soleil contortion and can't stop the shot.

About Me

Adam is a U of M grad who learned how to hold a hockey stick from watching Fedorov and the Wings on their '97 Cup run. He hasn't looked back since. Or skated, but that's beside the point. His ultimate goal is to provide the most thorough goal-by-goal and statistical analysis of Red Wings hockey on the internet. Follow the blog on Twitter @TOGBlog1